There was a time when Renaldo Ramirez, of Houston, didn't like to cook.

The 50-year-old ate most of his meals at mobile kitchens until he found out food contaminated with tapeworm eggs almost killed him.

"He's scared now. He's scared of any food from outside," Ramirez said through his sister who interpreted for him.

Ramirez is a tile worker who immigrated to the U.S. from El Salvador 20 years ago.

"It was a mild headache, but it wouldn't go away," he said. "It was just there and it wouldn't go away with Tylenol."

Doctors at a clinic gave him medicine for high blood pressure. A few days later he passed out and didn't wake up for eight days.

Dr. Aaron Mohanty found a cyst of tapeworm larvae living in Ramirez's brain. If it hadn't been found, the doctor said, Ramirez could have been dead within hours from the disease called cysticercosis. The disease is usually found in rural parts of developing countries with poor hygiene habits. However, Ramirez was the fourth patient Mohanty treated within a few months.

"The cycle starts with a human that's infected with the tapeworm," said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, of the UT Houston Medical Center.

The tapeworm eggs are spread by a human host who doesn't practice good hygiene after using the restroom. An unsuspecting victim then eats the contaminated food, Ostrosky said.

"These eggs hatch in the intestine and go through the gut-wall and into the circulation where they get stuck somewhere," Ostrosky said.

Ramirez's cyst was removed through a small incision. During his recovery Ramirez learned to cook and now prepares his own food.

There have been cases of cysticercosis in South Texas, San Antonio's Metro Health District said, but it is not a major outbreak.

The best way to avoid the disease, doctors say, is to wash your hands, cook meats thoroughly, especially pork, and to wash fruits and vegetables.

The thing I found most interesting about your 31/2 year old link was that the most fastidious hand washers were in Toronto during and following the SARS scare where a total of 32 Torontons were said to have died from SARS while the murder rate plodded along at 94 for the year.

55
posted on 01/12/2007 5:53:32 PM PST
by Old Professer
(The critic writes with rapier pen, dips it twice, and writes again.)

Remember. Eat at home! Cook your own food. They are working in many restaurants. All those years of vaccinations and disease control were a waste of time and money now that we have open borders. Hard for all of us to face the changes that we are going to have to make. This is the least reported and most dangerous aspect of US policy on immigration.

Spread from feral pigs or nearby cattle farms (take your pick) into fields where these poor picked on illegals are working. It's a wonder THEY don't sue the owners but I heard they are too busy running for the hills. LOL

69
posted on 01/13/2007 10:07:27 AM PST
by tertiary01
(Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".)

Good luck telling any christian in the US that any of the OT dietary rules apply to them! Regardless of what medical science is telling us, there is no convincing them that the rules are anything but part of "the old law." But then I suspect I am preaching to the choir.

It ought to make us all feel real good that people who work in food services no longer have to pass a health screening. They just show up and are put to work. Who knows what they may be carrying? They may be told to wash their hands after going to the bathroom, but how many sneeze, cough or rub their eyes, noses & mouths and never wash their hands? Those of us who avoid eating out and may be feeling a bit smug should also take into consideration how fresh produce is handled in the supermarket.

I sure hope your practice doesn’t include much treatment of parasitic diseases, because you are wrong. I suspect you weren’t paying much attention to the lectures on parasitology that you may or may not have had in medical school. Does the term visceral larval migrans ring a bell? Did anyone tell you about the peculiarities of Taenia solium and how its immature stages can invade the tissues of humans (giving rise in some unfortunate cases to “brain worm”? How about hydatid disease? And a whole bunch of other worms. Better borrow an introductory text book and bone up on the subject before you kill someone.

82
posted on 04/13/2010 11:45:42 AM PDT
by PengieP
(Maybe a Doctor, but you don't know jack about parasites)

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